User blog:Harold Burned-Mane/The Tale of Baslod - Part II
The Tale of Baslod the Dragonborn, King of Whiterun, to becoming the Emperor of Tamriel continues... Previous Parts: Part I. Calm before the Storm Following his return to Whiterun and the birth of his daughters, Baslod turned his attention to his neighbors. He wanted to begin his conquest and so he looked to the weakest opponent first. Jarl Wulfgar of Skyborn had just come out of a war with the Reachman King of Bleakwind, so his armies were tired and spent despite him having won the war. That along with the fact that the Jarl Wulfgar had once been Thane under the previous Jarl of Whiterun, only declaring himself independent after Baslod came into power, made him the prime candidate for his first conquest. Baslod had his spymaster Deydris go into Skyborn lands to investigate possible weak points that he could exploit. Once such weak point was named Lord Vulwulf of Valkygg. He was a minor lord but one that refused to side with Jarl Wulfgar in his previous war. After hearing about this from the Bosmer, King Baslod sent a letter to the Lord and asked him to rejoin the kingdom of Whiterun as his vassal and to aid in the conquest of Skyborn. After a few days, King Baslod received his reply. Lord Vulwulf Aald of Valkygg swore his allegiance to Whiterun and agreed to help them against Jarl Wulfgar. Conquest of Skyborn With an ally in Skyborn lands, King Baslod thought it was time to begin his war. He sent a formal declaration of war to Jarl Wulfgar of Skyborn. At the same time he sent letters to all his vassal, telling them to gather their forces and calling their armies to Whiterun. That is where they would group up in order to invade Skyborn. Baslod raised his personal soldiers, all 1102 of them in Whiterun and awaited for the others to arrive. Thane Kjorn called 189 of his men and began marching with them to the capital, while Riverwood only sent 9, the Thane of Greymoor sent 75 and Queen Iona only sent 59. When he heard of the number of soldier he was given by his vassals, King Baslod became disappointed. Only his friend Thane Kjorn had sent a significant enough amount of men to use in real battle. He figured that the people of Whiterun were not yet accustomed to his reign and thus didn't trust him enough to send more soldiers. King Baslod's plan didn't go according to how he had set it. Jarl Wulfgar had anticipated an attack and had his army ready. He marched 581 soldiers on Greymarch and caught the Queen's force completely by surprise. It was a slaughter. None of the 52 men remained. The Jarl's men suffered no casualties, however. When news of the surprise attack reached King Baslod he was angered, but that was not the worst of it. Much more troubling news came with those of the attack....news of his wife. Queen Iona God-Hater was dead. The exact method of her death wasn't told in the letter. Because all her men were dead there were no witnesses to report how she died. However the one responsible was known to King Baslod. It was Jarl Wulfgar. These news brewed an deep rage in Baslod. Wulfgar had woken the dragon inside him. The King continued to rally his men at Whiterun, but now he was more determined than ever to win this war. Jarl Wulfgar had made it personal. The Jarl of Skyborn didn't stop at Greymarch. He continued his assault, traveling further into the kingdom of Whiterun. Things were not going in Baslod's favor. Wulfgar attacked the army of the Thane of Greymoor and destroyed them same as the Queen's men. Thankfully, the Thane was able to escape with his life and retreated back to his castle. Jarl Wulfgar besieged the Thane's castle at Greymoor. When he had received the declaration of war he had been worried, Whiterun was much larger than his Jarldom. But now he was confident that he was winning. He had killed the Queen, won two battles without losing any soldiers and was going to besiege Greymoor. Though things didn't go as he had planned. The Thane only had 75 men during the battle because that was how much he was going to send to King Baslod. His castle was another matter. He had over 600 men stationed there, a stronger garrison than Wulfgar's army. The Jarl couldn't effectively hold a siege against them. To make matters worse for Skyborn, King Baslod had finished rounding up his army and was now marching to Greymoor with vengeance in his heart. 1300 soldiers, all of them wanting to avenge the death of the Queen of Whiterun. Jarl Wulfgar heard of the army coming but he didn't care. He was stubborn and arrogant, thinking that Greymoor's rough terrain would be enough to grant them the advantage for a victory. He had come this far, he was not going to turn back now. Though he was wrong, for King Baslod was a rage-filled Dragonborn. He led his army into battle with the Thu'um as his weapon. Baslod's army was split into three flanks. The King personally led the middle flank, while his good friend Thane Kjorn Bjariksen led the left flank. Leading the right flank was the old Housecarl to the previous Jarl of Whiterun. Queen Iona had been like a daughter to him, so he wanted to be part of the army that would avenge her. Baslod had the largest number of soldiers under his direct command, with the Housecarl having the least. Wulfgar's army only had two flanks. The Jarl led the middle flank himself, with nearly all his men being in that flank. The rest were mostly archers in the left flank that were led by his commander. King Baslod had the advantage in numbers, positioning and his commanders were much better tacticians than the Jarl's men. Thane Kjorn easily crushed the enemy's left flank and joined the rest of the Whiterun army as they attacked Jarl Wulfgar's main force. The Jarl was attacked from the front and was flanked from both sides, taking considerable losses very quickly. He saw that there was no hope of winning the battle and decided to run away, leaving his men to their fates. King Baslod won the battle. He had led his forces from the vanguard, using his thu'um to quickly defeat multiple enemy soldiers. None could stand in his way, he was more a force of nature than a man. The entire Skyborn army was decimated by Whiterun. They checked the corpses after the battle to see if they could find the Jarl but his body was nowhere to be seen. It was then that Baslod realized that the coward had retreated and left his men to die. He cursed him under his breath. Whiterun had only suffered 59 losses. 1240 soldiers remained ready for battle. After resting up in Greymoor, Baslod and the army left northward towards Skyborn. They headed straight to the Jarl's personal castle of Coldrock and besieged it. Jarl Wulfgar had returned to his home before them and tried to raise a militia to combat the Whiterun army, but by the time they had arrived he was only able to raise 29 men. He tried to run away to the Priory of Skyborn with this small force as an escort to escape death. King Baslod and the Whiterun Army laid siege to Coldrock after demolishing the 29 men that Jarl Wulfgar had raised in the castle. However, once again the elusive Jarl escaped capture and retreated to the castle of Orotheim. The castle of Rannveig in Coldrock had few defenders garrisoning it, but they had enough supplies to hold out against the Whiterun army for a while. Bandits took advantage of the siege and raided the Whiterun siege camps outside the castle at night. During the raid they killed some lookouts that had been keeping watch over supplies and stole as much as they could. The bandits were discovered by a Whiterun patrol but the patrolmen were caught off-guard and killed. In total 46 men were killed by the bandits during the night raid. Despite the setbacks of the bandit raid, the Whiterun army won the siege of Rannveig. The defending garrison surrendered after they began to run out of supplies, choosing to be captives than to be dead. With Coldrock under their control, King Baslod ordered his remaining 1196 soldiers to march to Skyborn and capture the priory. Thane Kjorn was left with a small garrison at Rannveig. The Invoker that ruled over the land was beginning to raise a militia, so far with only 16 soldiers. Those 16 men were trying to take the castle of Lord Vulwulf, but they were too few to hold a siege. The Whiterun army defeated the small militia and afterwards besieged the priory of Skyborn. Like Rannveig the priory had few defenders, but they didn't have enough supplies to hold out. Though the Invoker was as stubborn as his Jarl and decided to try to hold out against Whiterun. The result was that his people began to starve to death. Skyborn's defenders became too few to hold the priory and Whiterun stormed the holding. The battle was won with little to no losses on Whiterun's side. With the priory now under the control of Baslod, nearly all of Jarl Wulfgar's lands were under Whiterun control. Only Orotheim was left, however that castle was only recently captured by Wulfgar and didn't have levies to call on. The Jarl knew he had no choice, he had been utterly defeated. Wulfgar sent a letter to King Baslod, surrendering to him. While King Baslod wanted to ignore the surrender and continue the war so he could have a chance to fight Wulfgar in battle and slay him for killing his wife, he was advised that showing mercy would be better for others' perception of him. So Baslod accepted the surrender and the war finally ended with Whiterunner victory. After the war As a part of the terms of the surrender, Jarl Wulfgar was forced to come to Whiterun and formally swear his fealty to King Baslod in front of Whiterun's court. While the Jarl would have preferred not to show, he had no choice seeing as his life was holding on by a thread. If he disobeyed Baslod then the king would have cause to kill him. So Wulfgar went to Whiterun and swore his fealty to Baslod in Dragonsreach. King Baslod accepted his fealty. However, he still wanted to punish Wulfgar even if he couldn't kill him.... And so King Baslod Stormcrown stripped Jarl Wulfgar of some of his titles. He took away from him the title of Jarl of Skyborn as well as the castle of Rannveig, and its surrounding lands, leaving Wulfgar with only the ruined castle of Orotheim. From that moment he was Count Wulfgar Doom-Sayer of Orotheim. Wulfgar was furious at this, as he was not a minor noble weaker than even Thane Kjorn of Scarstone. He wanted to refuse, to fight back but he was powerless to do anything against Baslod. He begrudgingly accepted the sentence and returned to Orotheim that very evening. With Wulfgar's titles having been stripped, someone needed to occupy them. To the court's surprise, King Baslod named his former brother-in-law Sjovar as the new Jarl of Skyborn and gave him the castle Rannveig as his seat. With his wife dead Clan God-Hater and their allies were now against King Baslod again, so the king knew he needed to do something to appease them. Giving Sjorvar a Jarldom was the easiest way he could think to solve the problem. However that came with a risk...Sjorvar now had lands, income and soldiers. He could grow strong and try to take back Whiterun from Baslod. The king did have a way to prevent this. He still had Leifur as his ward. Sjorvar was unlikely to rebel when his son was with Baslod. The king bet that that would be enough to discourage the new Jarl from any stupid ideas. The Kingdom of Whiterun had now all of the Jarldom of Skyborn within its borders. King Baslod began to look to his other neighbours for the continuation of his campaign. Picking up the pieces With the war having ended, Deydris returned to Whiterun and began returning to his usual duties as Spymaster. Now that he had the time he decided to settle down as his friend Baslod had and start a family. However the opportunity only presented itself when someone from his past stopped by Whiterun. Idrolian, a Bosmer woman that served along with Deydris in the Thieves Guild, came to the capital and the elf ran into her at the local tavern. During their time in the Thieves Guild the two had been romantically involved so when he spotted her, Deydris started up a conversation and the two drank together and caught up. Idrolian ended up spending the night with him in Dragonsreach. Instead of leaving, she decided to remain in Whiterun with him. After a couple weeks of their renewed romantic relationship, Deydris and Idrolian eloped in the Temple of Kynareth. King Baslod received news from Mayor Knud of Riverwood. His guards had discovered a bandit camp near the village and the mayor ordered them to attack it. The guards killed all the bandits and captured all the treasure inside the camp. As an apology gift for not giving him many soldiers for the war with Jarl Wulfgar, the mayor sent half the treasure to the king. With his wife Queen Iona dead, King Baslod knew he would need to remarry. However he was in the middle of a war and so put it off until later. When the war with Skyborn was finally over, King Baslod could no longer put off the issue. While he had never loved Iona, he felt bad marrying again so soon after her death. Still, he only had two daughters and without a son his line wasn't secure. So he sent Deydris off to find him a suitable bride. His friend returned with word a few days later, having found a good match. Her name was Bodil Flame-Hair, daughter of the Queen of Eastmarch. A marriage with her would gain him a powerful ally for the wars to come. Bodil had already been married once, but her husband died of illness. She had two sons with her previous husband and she was still fairly young, so she would most certainly give Baslod the sons that he wanted. King Baslod agreed with Deydris' choice and sent Bodil a letter requesting her hand in marriage. Not long after, King Baslod received the reply. Princess Bodil accepted the proposal. She came to Whiterun to wed the Dragonborn. By the time she arrived, all the wedding preparations had been completed. They married in Dragonsreach with all the local nobles having attended. Even Jarl Sjorvar came to the wedding. The wedding was overseen by the High Priest of Kynareth from the local temple. After the wedding, Bodil remained in Whiterun with her new husband. One more problem remained from the fallout of Queen Iona's death, the Thanedom of Greymarch. She had held the title, given to her by her father, the previous Jarl of Whiterun. By rights the title should go to his eldest daughter, Astrid, but she was only a few months old. So King Baslod decided to give the title to someone else. The one he chose to grant the title was his personal Steward, a Breton named Terseon Arelden. Terseon was raised in Skyrim, so he followed Nordic culture, and he was a talented Magistrate as well as a just and quick thinking man. A worthy candidate for the Thanedom. After a small ceremony in Whiterun, Terseon left the capital for his new castle of Greymarch. The new Thane arranged a marriage to Rianciene Velain, daughter of King Francois of Jehanna. The match would give Whiterun an important ally in High Rock as well as possible claims there through Terseon and Rianciene's future children. King Baslod approved. King Baslod received an important letter from Deydris. His Spymaster had uncovered a plot started by Thane Wulfgar of Orotheim to retake the Jarldom of Skyborn for himself. As Baslod's friend Thane Kjorn had suspected, Wulfgar was up to no good. The king ordered his spymaster to keep an eye on Wulfgar and lend aid to Jarl Sjorvar should he need it in dealing with the Thane. Not long afterwards, King Baslod received more troubling information, this time from Thane Elgrim of Greymoor. It seemed that Mayor Knud of Riverwood was slandering him behind his back, trying to make the other nobles in his kingdom change their views on the Dragonborn King. While Baslod was tempted to arrest Knud immediately for his treason, he chose not to. He was making final preparations for his next way and having to deal with Knud would force him to postpone it. Still, he had Deydris look into the matter, see if it was just Knud that was doing this behind his back. What Deydris uncovered shouldn't have come as a surprise to King Baslod. Knud was not the leader of the plot to slander him, it was Thane Wulfgar of Orotheim. Mayor Knud was only a backer of Wulfgar's. The king cursed their names, but still did nothing against them. He didn't want to throw away the plans he had made for those two minor nobles' sake. They were too weak to cause him any real harm so he let them be for now. _____________________________________ I will be adding to his story over time. Leave your thoughts on the story below and if you'd like I can add custom characters created by you guys to the story. If you want to suggest a custom character just leave a message below and I can ask you the necessary information for creating the custom character. The custom characters can be vassals or courtiers of Baslod. The available positions currently are: *Chancellor (Should be a character good in diplomacy) *Marshal (Should be a character good in martial) *Magister (Should be a character good in learning) Category:Blog posts Category:Elder Kings Category:Stories